Operation Independence Day Arrest Results in Guilty Plea

Sperry Man Admits to Sexual Exploitation of a Child

A man arrested as part of a month long operation to capture predators and identify child victims pleaded guilty Friday in federal court for sexual exploitation of a child, announced U.S. Attorney Trent Shores.

Thomas Dustin Daughtry, 42, of Sperry, illegally engaged with the minor from Feb. 18, 2019 through June 25, 2019. In his plea agreement, Daughtry stated that he knowingly enticed a 15-year-old into engaging in sexually explicit conduct and persuaded the minor to send sexual images to him.

“The U.S. Attorney’s Office is a fierce advocate for Oklahoma’s children,” said U.S. Attorney Trent Shores. “Child predators like Mr. Daughtry use the internet as their hunting grounds to find vulnerable prey. Prosecutors and our law enforcement partners will remain vigilant in our own righteous hunt for these abusers and bring them forward to account for their crimes.”  

This prosecution resulted from Operation Independence Day, an investigation which was conducted in the month of July and resulted in nine individuals being charged federally in the Northern District of Oklahoma.

The nationwide operation relied on the 86 FBI-led Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Forces, which leverage the resources and intelligence of other federal, state, local and tribal partners. In total, law enforcement recovered or identified 103 child victims and arrested of 67 sex traffickers.

The FBI and Tulsa Police Department conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Shannon Cozzoni is prosecuting the case.

Topic(s): 

Project Safe Childhood

Component(s): 

USAO - Oklahoma, Northern

Contact: 

Public Affairs 918-382-2755

CyberTipline - NCMEC - Prevent And Diminish The Sexual Exploitation Of Children

CyberTipline - NCMEC - Trinity Mount Ministries

Make a CyberTipline Report

In March 1998, using hardware, software, and programming assistance donated by Sun MicroSystems, NCMEC launched the CyberTipline® to further NCMEC’s mission of helping to prevent and diminish the sexual exploitation of children. The CyberTipline provides the public and electronic service providers (ESPs) with the ability to report online (and via toll-free telephone) instances of online enticement of children for sexual acts, extra-familial child sexual molestation, child pornography, child sex tourism, child sex trafficking, unsolicited obscene materials sent to a child, misleading domain names, and misleading words or digital images on the Internet. NCMEC continuously reviews CyberTipline reports to ensure that reports of children who may be in imminent danger get first priority. After NCMEC’s review is completed, all information in a CyberTipline report is made available to law enforcement.

In furtherance of NCMEC’s mission, the CyberTipline allows NCMEC to engage with the Internet industry on voluntary initiatives to help reduce the proliferation of child sexual abuse images online. NCMEC uses the information submitted to the CyberTipline to create and tailor NCMEC’s safety and prevention publications that are provided to educators, parents and the public to help to prevent future victimization.

More than 27 million reports of suspected child sexual exploitation have been made to the CyberTipline between 1998 and 2017.

Members of the public are encouraged to report information regarding possible child sexual exploitation to the CyberTipline.

http://www.missingkids.com/gethelpnow/cybertipline

http://www.TrinityMount.Info

Jehovah's Witnesses accused of silencing victims of child abuse:

Scores of alleged victims come forward and describe culture of cover-up in religious group in UK.

by Sarah Marsh

More than a hundred people have made allegations of mistreatment.

More than 100 people have contacted the Guardian with allegations of child sexual abuse and other mistreatment in Jehovah’s Witness communities across the UK.

Former and current members, including 41 alleged victims of child sexual abuse, described a culture of cover-ups and lies, with senior members of the organisation, known as elders, discouraging victims from coming forward for fear of bringing “reproach on Jehovah” and being exiled from the congregation and their families.

A Guardian investigation also heard from 48 people who experienced other forms of abuse, including physical violence when they were children, and 35 who witnessed or heard about others who were victims of child grooming and abuse.

The stories told to the Guardian ranged from events decades ago to more recent, and many of those who came forward have now contacted the police.

They told the Guardian about:

An organisation that polices itself and teaches members to avoid interaction with outside authorities.

A rule set by the main governing body of the religion that means for child sexual abuse to be taken seriously there must be two witnesses.

“I was sexually abused many times a week from the age of three until I was 12. Congregation elders knew that when I told them, at 12, what had been happening. No steps were taken to tell the police. I had to tell three male senior figures what had happened. Imagine that? A young girl telling a bunch of men what this man did to me. I wasn’t even allowed to have my mother there with me.”

After she went to the police about what had happened, the person who abused her pleaded guilty and was eventually convicted. “The Jehovah’s Witnesses should lose their charity status as they are not protecting children,” she added. She said she had mental health issues as a result of what happened and how it was dealt with.

Jason Munro says he was abused for 10 years.

Jason Munro, another alleged victim of sexual abuse who waived his right to anonymity, could not give details of his case due to a current investigation but said: “I am completely horrified by the Jehovah’s Witnesses ... I didn’t get support and I experienced 10 years of abuse. Elders knew in my teens about the abuse but it was never a case of ‘let’s get this person the professional help he needs’.”

When a Jehovah’s Witness experiences sexual abuse they are supposed to report it to elders, who are always men, who will take further action if there is a second witness to the offence. The perpetrator will then be called before a judicial committee if they admit abuse or if there is a second witness.

“This causes further trauma to the victim and coupled with the two-witness rule, is undoubtedly the reason that so many victims have never reported it,” said Kathleen Hallisey, senior solicitor in the abuse team at Bolt Burdon Kemp, who is currently acting on behalf of 15 alleged victims.

She also noted that the problem with the two-witness rule in the context of sexual abuse was that there were rarely witnesses to it, “meaning that [these] reports ... are usually dismissed”.

It has been reported that the headquarters of the Jehovah’s Witnesses in the UK, the Watch Tower, holds a database of abuse allegations made within the organisation but has yet to hand it over to authorities.

The Charity Commission launched an investigation in 2013 looking into the Manchester New Moston congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses, concluding that it did not deal adequately with allegations of child abuse made against one of the trustees.

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Trinity Mount Ministries

STOP IT NOW!

Our Work

Stop It Now! was founded by Fran Henry, a survivor of childhood sexual abuse who learned first hand that standard approaches to keeping children safe from child sexual abuse at that time did not respond to the complex relationships surrounding most abuse. 

Her vision? To have the sexual abuse of children recognized as a preventable public health problem, to make helping adults take responsibility to prevent and stop sexual abuse of children a main focus of prevention, and to create effective programs based on these principles. She created Stop It Now! over 20 years ago to prevent the sexual abuse of children by mobilizing adults, families and communities to take actions that protect children before they are harmed.

In 2015, Stop It Now! became an affiliate of Klingberg Family Centers(link is external), a private, nonprofit multi-service agency based in New Britain, CT. Founded in 1903, Klingberg's mission is to extend hope and healing to children and families whose lives have been traumatized by abuse and/or neglect in its various forms, severe family problems and mental health issues. 

Our Approach: using research to inform practical, balanced solutions

Our efforts are guided by this understanding: to truly prevent harm to children, all adults need to accept responsibility for recognizing, acknowledging and confronting behaviors that lead to abuse.  More importantly, any long-term prevention strategy must change societal norms, so the sexual abuse of children is not tolerated and appropriate forms of help, support and accountability are provided to child victims and adult survivors, those who sexually abuse children, and the families of both.

Our ProgramsHelp Services - Provides direct help to individuals with questions or concerns about child sexual abuse.Prevention Advocacy - Advocates for the issue to be addressed as a public health priority.Prevention Education - Develops, assesses and distributes educational materials.Technical Assistance and Training – Provides consulting and training services to professionals, organizations, coalitions, and community-based programs.Our Impact

Stop It Now! has made significant and permanent contributions to the fields of public health, child abuse prevention, and crime prevention. These include pioneering a focus on adult responsibility for child sexual abuse prevention, successfully developing and replicating community-based prevention program, and collaborative work with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

Our Research

Consistent with a public health approach, Stop It Now! uses current scientific research, original market research, and program tracking and evaluation to develop its programs. Using a variety of methods - from focus groups to public opinion surveys to meta-analyses - and cooperating with leading researchers, we continue to build the evidence base needed for practical and effective prevention programs and materials.

Please Visit - http://www.stopitnow.org/

Talk to your kids today about sexual abuse:

By

Observer-Dispatch

Posted Nov 19, 2012 @ 03:01 AM

The growing number of child sexual abuse cases is frightening. And it sends a strong message that we all need to remain vigilant in raising awareness to this horrendous crime so that more children will come forward if they have been victimized.

Parents or other caregivers, don’t put off addressing this issue. Have an age-appropriate discussion with your child today. It’s one of the most important things you’ll ever do.

Scandals abound. The latest comes from Britain, where police said last week that a renowned BBC TV host who died last year was one of the nation’s worst pedophiles, possibly abusing several hundred children. Meanwhile, the Penn State scandal percolates a year later, with former president Graham Spanier facing charges that he lied about and concealed child sex abuse allegations involving former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky. Sandusky is serving up to 60 years in prison after being convicted of abusing young boys over a 15-year period.

Also last week, Trenton Town Supervisor Mark Scheidelman was charged with felony sex abuse, accused of abusing a 7-year-old boy. Police say Scheidelman, 52, might have abused others over the past three decades, and are asking alleged victims to come forward.

Earlier this year, it was announced that reports of sexual abuse against children in Oneida County steadily increased between 2005 and 2009. If there’s any ray of hope in this, it’s that more children are coming forward to report abuse because of heightened awareness.

Talking about such things with our kids can be uncomfortable. But there are many agencies such as the YWCA Mohawk Valley, Oneida County Child Advocacy Center or Mohawk Valley office of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that can provide information for discussing this with your child.

Don’t put it off. Begin a dialogue now and help your child understand that they must come to you if they are uncomfortable with anything. And by all means, if you suspect abuse, report it by calling the YWCA’s 24-hour confidential hotlines: 866-4120 in Herkimer County; 797-7740 in Oneida County. You can also call the Oneida County Child Advocacy Center at 732-3990.

Tips for parents, caregivers

-- Talk. Maintain a dialogue with children identifying good touch versus bad touch and helping them understand that their bodies belong to them.

-- Tone down the stranger danger. While children need to be aware of strangers and how to keep themselves safe, the vast majority of child sexual abusers are individuals the child knows, such as a parent or other relative, a teacher, coach, clergy, neighbor or family friend.

-- Break the silence. Child sexual abuse thrives on secrecy. Children need to be able to tell a trusted adult if someone tries to hurt or touch them inappropriately.

-- Get educated. Encourage professional prevention programs in the local school system and throughout the community.

— YWCA Mohawk Valley

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